Cunningham brings curtain down on Knowsley Road in grand style

St Helens 42 Huddersfield

St Helens ended a 120-year era at Knowsley Road by qualifying for another Old Trafford Grand Final, but only after the gutsy Giants had done their damndest to wreck the party.

Keiron Cunningham bade farewell to the ground he has graced for 17 years by setting up three tries, including the one from Tony Puletua that clinched a compelling qualifying semi-final for his side, and scoring the last. "He's phenomenal," said his coach Mick Potter and having the finishing line in sight is driving him on."

For their last hurrah at Knowsley Road – at least at competitive first-team level – Saints were able to bring back Kyle Eastmond, the latest in a long line of extravagantly talented half-backs to illuminate the old ground, after a hip injury. Huddersfield, after their heroics at Warrington last week, were unchanged apart from the minimum of fine tuning.

After a 10 minute delay to get the late-comers through the turnstiles for the last time, it was Bryn Hargreaves who was Saints' unlikely early hero. The journeyman prop, destined for Bradford next season, showed uncanny timing by scoring his first two tries of the season in the opening 12 minutes, both as a result of the dummy-half probing of Cunningham.

Francis Meli turned defence into attack by returning Danny Brough's kick to set up the position for the first, created by Cunningham's little grubber – one of the less frequently seen aspects of his repertoire – and Hargreaves' dive. Leroy Cudjoe fumbled Matty Smith's high kick for the second, with Cunningham's pass putting Hargreaves under the sticks.

But anything Saints' captain could do, Huddersfield's could match. Brett Hodgson went to dummy half to put Shaun Lunt through a big gap to get the Giants started. Five minutes later, Hodgson threw the brilliant cut-out pass that put Michael Lawrence over on the opposite side of the field. It was the most difficult of conversions, but Hodgson put it over to tie up the scores.

Saints were rattled but regained the initiative before half-time, when Paul Wellens got onto the end of an attack initiated by Eastmond and stretched over the line, with Jamie Foster adding his third goal. There was no keeping the Giants down, however, with Lawrence grabbing his second try when he gathered Brough's cross-field kick and put boot to ball and won the race.

Six minutes after the break, Huddersfield went in front for the first time, the former Saint, Lee Gilmour, pouncing on a clever low kick from Hodgson, who added another inspired conversion. It took the re-introduction of Cunningham to lift Saints, although it was his fellow-hooker, James Roby, who came up with the kick near the line to give Wellens his second try and Foster his fourth goal to reclaim the lead.

A penalty conceded by David Fa'alogo for holding on to Puletua then proved crucial for Saints. Smith's long touch-finder put the Giants under pressure and Puletua took Cunningham's short pass to crash over.

When Meli got over eight minutes from time, Saints were on their way to Old Trafford, where they await the winner of today's game between Leeds and Wigan. Foster finished with seven immaculate goals from as many attempts before Cunningham fittingly scored the final try.

The Huddersfield coach, Nathan Brown, called them "a growing club". "I'm really proud of what we've achieved this season but our discipline let us down a bit in the second half," he added.

St Helens: Wellens; Foster, Gidley, Solioa, Meli; Eastmond, Smith; Graham, Cunningham, Hargreaves, Wilkin, Flannery, Puletua. Substitutes used Roby, Clough, Dixon, Emmitt.

Huddersfield: B Hodgson; Cudjoe, Lawrence, Gilmour, D Hodgson; Brown, Robinson; Mason, Brough, Griffin, Lunt, Fa'alogo, Wild. Substitutes used Crabtree, Kirmond, Faiumu, Patrick.

Referee P Bentham (Warrington)